On the opener to
his third album, Big Sean raps "And then they say it happened for me
overnight, shit, yeah I guess/I guess it took ten years for me to be an
overnight success" with a rawness in his voice that underscores the truth
behind his words – despite getting a lot of attention on his first album in
2011 (due in large part to being signed to Kanye West's G.O.O.D. Music), it has
taken him a while to be taken seriously as a front man.
From being the
perpetual sideman who shows up on bigger names' songs (Kanye again, Drake, Rick
Ross, etc.) to getting completely overshadowed on 2013's "Control" by
Kendrick Lamar's now infamous verse, sometimes Sean comes across as rap's
Rodney Dangerfield – he just wants a little respect.
Dark Sky Paradise
isn't the full-on game changer Sean is probably hoping for, but it ably makes
the case for why he should be taken seriously as an MC in his own right.
Sean has always
sounded most at home on vintage-sounding Kanye beats – soul samples sped up or
slowed down and run over some kind of futuristic drum machine – and he's very
much in that pocket on Dark Sky, to
the album's benefit. "Play No Games" is the perfect example of the
kind of beats Sean excels on, even if it gets docked a point or two for having
Chris Brown on it (though it is nice to see Ty Dolla $ign getting bigger).
The best example
of this kind of song is "All Your Fault," which features Yeezy
himself doing his crooning through an autotuner thing over a sublime sample.
Sean is content to let his mentor take the lead – he doesn't actually make an
appearance on the track until nearly two minutes into a three-and-a-half minute
song.
"I Don't
Fuck With You" was released late last year as a single, but it's
definitely one of the strongest songs here, due in large part to the presence
of veteran E-40. E's deeper voice and more relaxed delivery is a nice
counterbalance to Sean, and I'm officially starting a petition for a mixtape
with just these two working together. Plus, I'm a complete sucker for the soul
breakdown at the end of the song – that's just gorgeous stuff.
Some of the most
interesting songs on the album are the ones where Sean goes in a different
direction, like he does on "Paradise (Extended)." The beat comes
courtesy of Mike Will Made-It, the reigning king of beats that just burrow into
your ear and stay there. The song is all bleating horns, Bernard Hermann strings
and rumbling bass and features Sean's strongest, most nimble flow on the album.
"Research"
is interesting if for no other reason than it was left off the album proper –
instead the song, which features Ariana Grande, is available as part of the
deluxe version. It's fine, as far as any pop-rap song can be, but the fact that
Sean made the decision to keep this kind of cross-over effort from mucking up
the vibe he's building speaks to his maturity as an artist. It's an encouraging
sign.
Near the end of the
album comes its high point – "One Man Can Change the World." It's not
often I get to say this about a hip-hop song, but this one is absolutely
beautiful, thanks to gorgeous piano from label mate John Legend, and Kanye even
jumps on, like the music is so pretty he can't help it. Unlike many of the
slower rap songs that feature the artist reflecting on all the things he's done
wrong and the people he's hurt, "One Man" features Sean remembering
his late grandmother and the way she inspired him: "Went to war, came back
alive/On top of that became a female black captain/When being black you had to
extra extra try/Way before James Brown made us proud." It's affecting
without being too sappy and can totally knock you flat if you let it.
Dark Sky Paradise
is easily Sean's best album yet, and if it doesn't go quite as far as
justifying some of his braggadocio, it certainly establishes him as a rapper
worth paying attention to. That's not a bad feat for any album.
Dark Sky Paradise
is out on Def Jam.
No comments:
Post a Comment